


Demon

by RoeDusk



Series: Naruto Story Idea and Headcanon Grab Bag [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Kiri Graduation Exam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 19:43:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8340259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoeDusk/pseuds/RoeDusk
Summary: Kiri's graduation exams ended after Zabuza killed the entire graduating class, when he wasn't even supposed to be graduating.  So why was he there?





	

There’s no such thing as an orphan in Kiri.  They’re ‘street kids’, or ‘rats’, or ‘target practice’ to particularly nasty ninja.  Zabuza has been one of them as long as he could remember.  There was a time he can’t quite remember when he was really young, the time his name comes from, when they called him ‘Zabuza’, ‘little one’, or even ‘Zuzu’.  He’s still little, but the bigger rats learn to fear him.  On the streets he’s ‘Zabuza’, ‘boss’, ‘little terror’, or ‘monster’.  No friends, no family, and an obligation to no one but himself to survive.  Still, he was doing alright.

Then the ninja came.

Kiri had a tradition of pairing up the graduating class in death matches, theoretically based on a random draw.  Truthfully the practice had long since degenerated into bribery and a test of the village’s selected breeding programs.  Those who were meant to survive did. Those who the instructors had decided had to be culled, were.  But a mass killing of this magnitude had to be built up, made a spectacle of.  The kids had to be psyched up to it.  That’s why the academy teachers went out the morning of, as they always did, and kidnapped a handful of street kids to start the event off right.

Everyone on the streets knew the first rule of survival was Avoid Ninja.  If a ninja spotted you, it generally meant game over.  Though his instincts woke him as soon as someone stepped into the alley Zabuza was tossed in a sack and dragged halfway across the village before he could fight back.  The teacher who’d grabbed him was only momentarily startled when he managed to rip his way out of the sack halfway through the graduation day speech.  But what did a ninja have to fear from him?

The academy’s students had been broken into small groups, each chaperoned by a teacher.  Said chaperone would give the graduation day speech, then ask for a volunteer to kill the captured child and start off graduation day.  Zabuza stood, watching the students with narrowed eyes as the teacher finished his speech and asked for a volunteer to kill him.

On the street his skills of observation and mimicry had been a quirk, something that kept him alive but didn’t put food in his belly.  Here it was something more.  Brown eyes took in stances, the grip on the weapon as the other drew.  And 7 years of watching and fighting street battles had taught him to dodge.  Lashing out with his free hand, he managed to deflect the other’s kunai back into their own throat, pulling it out moments later in a child’s subpar grip and taking a step back as they died.

The teacher stared in shock as the body fell.  Never since this exam had been put in place had a street kid survived the opening event.  But death was an inherent part of the exam, so he shook himself and asked for a volunteer who could actually perform the kill, rather than dying to some street kid.

Another child, with a better grip, stepped forward.  Zabuza watched them move, cataloging it as he had the first, then lashed out as the first child had.  He earned a thin stripe of red on his arm for the weak blow, but ducked out of the way in time to avoid any worse.  Thoughtfully he adjusted his grip to that of this new opponent.  Three moves later he’d stopped taking hits, and the second child had gotten their throat slit.

The instructor was growing impatient.  All the other groups had already killed their victim, and soon the other teachers would come over to know what the holdup was.  He snapped at the remainder of his group for someone to kill the boy already.  One of the school’s better students decided to step in and regain control of the situation.  He ended up gutted.

By then the other groups had all gathered nearby to watch, and the other instructors were beginning to tease their coworker for getting the group that apparently couldn’t even hold their own against untrained civilians.  Furious, the chunin ordered all graduates to kill the brat, the one who succeeded would automatically be raised to Genin level.  With such an announcement even those at the bottom of the class leapt to obey, determined to bring Zabuza down and avoid their untimely death in the battling arena.

The monster of the streets dodged and watched, studied as he struggled to keep out of range.  And as he fought he learned more and more.  When to dodge, how to sense who was behind him, what hand signs to look for as the precursor to an attack.  When he got it wrong he was injured but instinct and luck served him well, all the wounds managed to be minimal.  He threw his kunai as they did, learned to aim, stole others off the dead.  His attacks became deadlier and more accurate, his dodges neater, and he stopped getting injured.

The instructors had gone from jeering to tense silence, waiting to see if any of this class’s kids could finally kill the no-name bastard off the street.  When the last kid finally fell, the instructor who had caught Zabuza snapped.  Drawing his own weapon he attacked the child from behind.  But Zabuza never had the luxury of assuming the fight was over just because everyone had stopped moving, and wasn’t about to start believing that now.  He twisted out of the way, earning a scrape along the cheek for his trouble but no more.  The teacher was faster than an academy student, his form better, and his jutsu more varied.  By now, Zabuza was too.  The other instructors watched in horror as the street kid dodged long enough to adjust his stance, adjust to the speed, then killed their coworker.

Teaming up the remaining instructors were still far enough above him in power that they subdued him.  But they weren’t trying to kill him anymore.  Their entire graduating class, plus one instructor, had been killed by this no-name kid.  He’d be handed over to the Mizukage in the morning.  Either he’d make up for the loss of their entire class somehow, or they’d do their damndest to make sure the blame fell on him.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes 'Zuzu' is stolen from Avatar. I though it fit.
> 
> This is my personal headcanon for the Kiri graduation exam. It was more of a Root style graduation exam than a free for all, but went badly because Zabuza refused to die. 
> 
> Zabuza's battle prowess is based on a line he said in the English Dub, about how Haku only had to see a move once to be able to counter it? It turned out not to be true at all, but if something like that can exist in Naruto world then he can pick up combat by a natural talent. It would basically be a rare ability that works similar to the way Sharingan was originally supposed to work, sort of? 
> 
> Not important I guess. I can describe in more details if anyone wants to know. Otherwise, go wild.


End file.
